Bekah Cooper: Before the Uniform
by not magical me
Summary: A few short stories before she becomes a Dog. It is not in order.
1. My Lady didn't want me to be a Dog

The Lady's eyes bored into me.

"You don't really want to be a Dog, now, do you Rebekah?" she asked, dangerously sweet.

I swallowed. I shouldn't have talked to my Lord Provost about my dream in front of his wife, I realized, too late.

Yes, I want to be a Dog. More than anything in the world, I want to be a Dog.

I looked down. "No, my lady." I answered weakly.

Lord Provost sighed slightly. He was disappointed in me for letting her bully me this way.

Lady Teodorie smiled a reptilian smile, tight lipped and malicious. Her eyes burned with cold satisfaction. "What was that, Rebekah? I don't understand you when you mumble." She asked. I felt my face go red, and looked down at the red table cloth, with its gold embroidery.

She knew very well what I had just said.

The entire table probably had heard, and it was twelve feet long. Twelve feet! I could hear my younger sisters whispering, about how they had known all along it was just a faze I was going through, and how glad they were that I was giving it up, finally.

I tried not to hold it against them.

They were just worried that a Rat would douse me if I became a Dog.

I saw, out of the corner of my eye, my brothers staring at me in surprise. They knew about my dream. How passionate I was about it.

My heart throbbed in my chest.

I swallowed a piece of well cooked chicken. It wasn't burned, it hadn't spoiled, and it had no maggots in it. I hadn't met the cook yet, but now I would definitely be paying a visit to the kitchens to beg for food.

"No, my Lady, I don't want to be a Dog." I whispered, thinking with all my heart that I would eat moldy bread and drink muddy water for the rest of my life if I could be a Dog.

Later that night, with Pounce curled up near my chest, I thought about what I had said at dinner that night, and the pains I had taken to avoid my worried brothers afterwards.

I felt a small, lonely tear slide down my cheek. "Yes, Lady Teodorie, I want to be a Dog." I said whispered into the darkness. My cat purred. I stroked him lovingly. "Yes, Lady Teodorie, I want to be a Dog."


	2. I almost fell off the stable loft

I sniffled, remembering.

The Lady had looked angry, very angry. "What is the meaning of this, Rebekah?" she demanded, brandishing something at me. It had taken me a moment to recognize it.

When I did, I blushed furiously and looked down without answering. My family and I were still new to the house, and I still couldn't feel comfortable around the Lady. She held out to me a bun, one of the many that I had been storing in my room. I knew that we wouldn't run out of food, but I couldn't help it. I always felt that there might not be anything to eat when I woke up. I felt guilty about it, but I wasn't adjusting as fast as my sisters.

The Lady had punished me, and I had stumbled out of the house nearly in tears. I didn't want to disappoint the Lord or his wife, and yet I had, before the month was out.

I was proud, I didn't CRY in public, so I made for the stables, sniffling. I had blindly felt my way to the ladder up to the stable loft. I climed it, not caring that I could fall if I misjudged a step.

Once I had found a quiet, private little corner in the hay I burst into tears. Some of the hay shifted slightly. I looked up immediately, and tried to stop hiccuping. Failing in that, I resolved to glare my best at whoever it was.

"Come out." I rasped.

There was a tiny, submissive mewl, and something small and black tumbled out of a small burrow in the hay. I sighed. It must have been one of the barn cat's kittens. I picked it up carefully, and looked at it. It was a runt, and I was fairly sure it was underfed. It must have been abandoned by its mother a few days ago. I stood up and walked over to the ladder. Then I got a good look at its eyes. I froze stiff, hardly breathing. I felt the kitten squirm in my arms and realize that I was leaning in a direction that would probably take us both tumbling off the ladder.

It had purple eyes.


	3. Your name is Pounce

I bit back a snicker.

I saw how my yet to be named kitten, who I suspected I was only allowed to keep because my Lord stepped in, was eyeing the Lady's spotless white gold embroidered shoe.

It was going up and down, up and down, in that habit she had.

It was a perfect toy for a playful young kitten.

Any second now...

"Rebekah!" The scream resounded throughout the house. "Get your filthy, disgusting cat off my shoe!"

I tried very hard not to laugh as I picked up my kitten. He was looking very pleased with himself, licking his chops.

The Lady was out of her fancy red "sewing chair". Her face was as firey-red as her chair, and a tuft of hair had come out of the restricting pins.

"Bad cat." I told him with a straight face and no enthusiasm. I was so proud of him. Within seconds of coming into the house, he knew who I liked and who I didn't. Then my shoulders started shaking with my effort to keep my laugh down.

I turned away from the Lady's accusing blue-eyed glare to my Lord's amused brown one. My face twisted. His eyes danced. I couldn't tell you why it was so funny. It just was. Maybe it was seeing the puff of hair dancing over her ear as she shook with anger, but I started laughing quietly. "You are excused." She hissed icily at me.

I made for my room, laughing all the way. When I reached the doubtful safety of my quarters, my laughs became howls.

He sat dignified on my bed, like a little lord.

My cat had gone after that shoe like it was his next meal.

He had pounced on it.

A thought struck me.

My cat had no name.

He had pounced on that shoe.

"Pounce." I tested the word, rolling it around in my mouth.

"Your name is Pounce." I told him seriously.


	4. I can't BELIEVE I let him follow me

I was furious with my mother.

The cart jounced under me. "Rebekah..." She said, her cheeks rosy red from the sickness.

I ignored her.

"Rebekah...It was an oppurtunity. I want you and the others to grow up well, in a nice house, with food on the table. I can't give you that for long. I was never able to give you that. Listen to me, Beka. This is as much for your brothers and sisters as it is for you."

Still,I said nothing.

"Rebeka." she said sharply.

I was still stung that I had let him follow me home.

"Well, then, what exactly were you going to do? I'm _dying_, Beka. I won't be around much longer. You are children, you wouldn't last long. You'd be caught and sold for slaves." she broke off to a fit of coughing.

"I know. But I can't believe that I let him follow me." I said, scowling blackly. She stared at me.

"Is that what this is about?" she asked carefully. I looked at her blankly. "What else? We get lots free food, a place to sleep, and a big huge garden."

"And what else?" she asked sternly. I thought about that.

"A gate, so we don't have to worry about Nilo running after every horse that passes." She looked at me andlaughed, and then she began to cough.


	5. Tag With my Shadow

Beka laughed and watched her father swung baby Diona around and aroud, whirling around the two room house as she and her mother did the laundry. Or, more correctly, as her mother tried to do the laundry, and she splashed in the water and made a pest of herself, but was convinced that she was, in some way, "helping".

But her mother just smiled and gently splashed back. She didn't mind. At this rate, her daughter wouldn't have to take another bath for the rest of her life.

Finally her father put the baby down for her nap and announced that he had to get to work. Beka waved a soapy hand at him and then climbed out of the basin, deciding that she had helped enough, much to the relief of her mother, who just wanted to get the laundry done. Beka watched Diona gurgling in her sleep for a while, gurgled back, and then became bored.

She decided that she wanted to play tag with her shadow, a game that she had invented. She would smack the ground as hard as she could, and then run as fast as possible, trying to outrun her shadow. Then tired, she would stop, or, more likely, trip, fall on her backside, and announce breathlessly that the shadow had caught her. And then she would play again.

This kept her entertained for five minutes until she tripped over her mother's skirt as she ran past. She just lay there for awhile, in the manner of small children realizing, shocked, that they had just been hurt.

Her mother picked her up, fussing anxiously.

Her face crumpled.

Her mother made low, soothing noises.

A small tear slid down her cheek. That did it.

She opened her mouth and bawled, screaming her pain for the world to hear. The whole world probably DID hear, at that.

Her mother "Shhhh..."'ed, and "It's al_right_, Beka, you silly little gixie..."'ed and "Hush now..."'ed her until she stopped howling, the tears stopped streaming, and the pain stopped hurting.

She let her mother rock her awhile longer, and then squirmed to be put down.

She had a shadow to show who was boss.


End file.
